Graymotion's Production Zone

Comments

You can always start with some of the built in effects, then tweak to suit your shot. Plus combining multiple effects like upping the brightness on a particle layer and shortening the lifetime for flame exhaust with the missile smoke trail works pretty well.

I was inspired by a recent thread from a community user about an Earth zoom for a Florida Realestate firm so I thought I'd return to my own zoom. I followed Andrew's (VideoCopilot) tut on an Earth zoom. All worked fairly well with that except for the final zoom. The camera points in AE seem to to hold a few crucial decimal points that Hitfilm doesn't.

Anywho... I went about it from the opposite end (Space) with the help of yet another AE tutorial as a baseline.

I used a stock Milky Way image that I tinted/ adjusted the brightness and a Google Earth image that I adjusted the Hue and threw some curves at it to make it look like a night scene. All looks pretty well but I've been beating my head against the wall trying to figure out how to make a matte that will wash the city lights out when a scene light hits the edge of the globe. Any direction here?

Full disclosure - I wanted a satellite in the scene but didn't have one other than in a Motion VFX application for Motion 5 called mObject. I rendered the model out there and brought it into Hitfilm... so if the model looks a tad out of place that there is my explanation , and sticking to it, for the slight (slide) of the satellite.

As GrayMotion, LIFE_LEADERSHIP and myself have discovered, AE has a couple more significant digits after decimal points than Hitfilm.

Now, you'll see that this tutorial basically comes down to linking a lot of images to a single point and scaling that--so, when you come to the stage where you would link the first image to the control point, go ahead and change the scale of the control point to 10,000 or 100,000 percent BEFORE you parent anything to it. That gets around AE's having more digits after the decimal.

GrayMotion, that looks good. The tracked sphere over the hand looks fantastic! I'll put some thought into the matte, but, right now the method I see is clunky and inelegant.

Well first.. I hadn't thought of scaling a control point before parenting. Thanks for the tip with Krammer's effect T23. I will drop back and finish out that version of the zoom as I don't like leaving loose ends laying about.

It's a pretty simple zoom with only one Google plate. Incidentally this is where I saw that the author renders out several passes of the globe one of which was a luminous light pass for flooding out the city lights.

As for the tracked hand opener...I cannot take credit for that. I'm humbled that you thought I had a "hand" in that... although I'm going to try my hand at my own version at some point. It is a Final Cut opener I picked up somewhere?. I can use Motion 5 to reverse engineer (pick-apart) any template or plugin so that's my plan. Most looks simple enough but I can't seem to make the crossover from FCPX's drop zone into a the Hitfilm environment... especially wrapping a video inside a sphere-- but where there is a will there is a way.

@Yeremeyah GrayMotion here is definitely someone you should look to for inspiration. If I remember correctly, he came to Hitfilm as a total VFX newbie in September 2015. He's progressing in leaps and bounds, and is a good example of how one can develop solid skills in Hitfilm in only a few months.

I hear ya Triem. For me personally, I am most interested in text intros and text effects, and I was very impressed at GrayMotion's text animations. So I was wondering if what he has shown can be achieved on HitFilm Express alone?

They are separate software applications from Apple and only run on a Mac. Motion is a layer based compositor like Hitfilm the Hitfilm composite timeline and FCP X is a video editor like the Hitfilm NLE timeline.

@Yeremyah Very sorry for the confusion. I have many tools in my arsenal. I learned long ago that it takes many, many tools to do a job...including video work.

I agree that Hitfilm is in need of a "Under 5 Minute" series to help all of us newbies grasp the software but at present you just have to watch the tutorials that the team and community have put out there in the past.

I'm defiantly not the one to learn from... yet. I'm still learning myself. As @Triem23 points out I'm 4 months new into VFX. I just keep plugin away as it's the only way I learn.

As you can tell I'm a bit of a Star Trek fan, and apologies for referring to probably the worst ST episode of them all, "Spocks Brain". There is a scene where Dr. McCoy puts on the uber-knowledge head gear that teaches him, almost instantly, how to do microscopic brain surgery. But there's a catch. The knowledge is fleeting and passes quickly. There are no lasting overnight miracles.

Also, as an educator in both the IT and Motion Graphics fields there are times when some students give up on their chosen path too quickly because they want to know everything "right now". They want the instant gratification of the uber head gear and have no time to RTFM and ultimately drop out. I've been known in class to respond to this situation by saying, "If you don't want to do the homework, that's fine. The world needs ditch diggers, too."

It turns out that only those who have a passion (or knack) for VFX really stick to it, read all the material, do all the tutorials and . . .practice . . . practice . . . practice. Sounds a lot like being a musician doesn't it?

I can't just walk up to Eric Clapton and say teach me everything about the guitar in a week and expect to have the years of knowledge and experience that lies beneath. Only by living through the pain, joy, agony, triumph, defeat, perseverance and success will you become an artist. Learning your craft comes along the way as an incremental process, not as a 5 Minute session.

We learn by doing. Somebody shows you a few licks and then you go back and practice . . . practice . . . .practice.

I understand GrayMotion, however, I personally love text animations, and when I saw your text animations, I got excited as I thought I could create similar in HitFilm, but now I understand you did not use HitFilm to create those text animations, which was a shame as I really like them.

@Yeremyah Just because GrayMotion used Motion and FCP that doesn't automatically mean the same things can't be accomplished in HitFilm (including Express) or other packages. What it means is GrayMotion used his knowledge and experience with the tools he knew or felt would best accomplish his goals.

The two most important words in the previous paragraph are "knowledge" and "experience". The only way to get there is start out with the basics until you understand them then you can move on to gaining experience applying the basics in new and interesting ways.

@Stargazer54 Spock's Brain? Really?!? Did you have to stoop so low? You Sir are now dead to me

@Yeremyah it's very common for digital artists to move between different programs. As much as FxHome likes to claim Hitfilm is a "one-stop shop," it's actually not even close--although Hitfilm DOES come closest to being one. Hitfilm is still a compositor at heart, and it's editor is pretty basic. It's getting better, but it's still very basic. It's audio tools are very weak (although I do love-love-love that Doppler shift plug-in in 4 Pro). It's 3D tools don't even come close to what's available in a dedicated 3D program.

With all that said, Hitfilm is currently the best "Swiss Army Knife" of VFX. I can think of better editors, I can think of better compositors, I can think of better coloring tools, I can think of better 3D software, but none of them can do the bit-of-everything Hitfilm can. Hitfilm 4 Pro is the best damn overall VFX tool at it's price point, and up to about twice it's price point. Hitfilm Express is unbeatable (yes, it's less powerful that Pro, but I am truly surprised at how much FxHome put into Express). Express has a carefully selected set of tools, but it's aimed more at users who are doing narrative films, with an emphasis on action.

Now, for you--if your main interest is in text and titling, then I highly suggest you start saving up for Pro. The 3D Extrusion effect is something you'll want, but that's in the Starter Pack add-on (about $10) and the Parallax tool is great for text, but that's part of the 3D Models add-on (about $100), and you'll want Light Rays and Volumetrics, which is part of the Atmospheric Lighting Pack (about $25), and you've already gotten the Flares Pack (about $25), and a lot of the videos you're asking about doing in Express involve Particles (about $100), so to really get the toolset in Hitfilm that's best for titling, you're looking at about $250 in add-ons.

Now, Pro gives you ALL the add-ons, another 25 effects not available in Express at all, AND comes with the Boris FX 3D Objects module, which contains a full toolset for 3D animated text beyond what Hitfilm's tools are capable of. (And Boris sells that module for $299).

And, of course, there's still a lot of work and trial and error to get the skills down to really take advantage of the software--but I'll tell you, Hitfilm's a lot easier to get your head around that After Effects or Boris Red or Nuke, as well as a lot cheaper.

@Stargazer54 you slander "Spock's Brain." We all know "Turnabout Intruder" is the worse episode of ToS !

Actually, I think "The Alternative Factor" is the worst episode--the last time I worked through ToS on the Blu-Rays, that's the one episode I skipped out on halfway through. "Turnabout" has the entertainment value in Shatner's performance (he's very good in that one), and "Spock's Brain" has a wonderful camp factor. "Brain and brain! What is Brain?"

@GrayMotion give it a year, and you'll be one of the forum gang handing out tips and tricks to the newbies. ;-)

@Yeremyha Start looking at the Motion 5 and FCP tutorials as well, most of them can be done in HF. I am also using FCP and Motion a lot on top of HF or a combination. If you are on a Mac, Motion is only something around 50 €.

But again, start watching this tutorials as well and you will learn a lot. Same goes for After Effect and so on.

@Triem23 You have me there. Alternative Factor was a real stinker. And yes, Morg and iMorg have an interesting arrangement, "the givers of pleasure and pain." Words penned by a divorced screenwriter, no doubt. (Actually written by Lee Cronin, Gene Coon's alter ego)

And every time I say "patience", all I can hear is General Roth'h'ar Sarris from Galaxy Quest.

@Aladdin4d If I crossed the line sir, it was all in the name of science!

I used the Boris FX 3D Objects module mention above that comes with Hitfilm 4 Pro.

And yes...100% HF

At first glance there seems to be issues with the plugin but it got the job done. I'm sure if I spent more time on it I could figure why the textures aren't showing up properly on the back edge but all in all it can be done. BTW - this is all built on 2D planes